Finally got round to watching The Da Vinci Code- The extended version. Haven’t read the book. Great performances all round but the plot creaks and creaks and creaks.I picked who The Master (reminding me of Dr. Who) long before his identity was revealed. I picked Jesus’ great-great-great-great-great etc grandchild long before their identity was revealed. Messed up on the grandfather though.
Quite fun, really, but certainly not up there with some of Ron Howard’s other movies.

Howard’s “this proves the system is working” response to the unfair AWA’s is such a versatile strategy. I think he used the same phrase when it was discovered that Australian citizens were being put into detention; the fact that failures come to light is somehow a sign that everything is AOK! More postmodernity? I suppose it is beyond the limit of his reason to conclude that such a huge number of failures might be an indication that the system is flawed?

Michael,
Don’t think its turned up in Armidale yet, but I live right on the edge of town and junk mailers are sometimes too lazy to do my street. Probably the Exclusive Brethren. I’ve been told we have a church up here, actually been driven past it and shown the location, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what street it is in. So if they’re behind ot we might see some soon.

Well I’ve been in an election time warp today.
I spent this morning following Robert J. Hawke, Blanche d’Alpuget and Julie Owens MP (Member for Parramatta) around the Seven Hills shopping centre, watching Hawkie do his thing for the Labor Party. It’s totally unnerving how he can make the over 40s smile with that Silver Bodgie ‘aaaaaay’ thing.
The man’s a legend.

No, no cigars. But he definitely had shoes with big buckles, a coat worthy of an SP bookie, and he stopped in at every hairdressers to say aaaaaay to the laydees.
Blacktown/Toongabbie/Seven Hills is definitely voting [1] Hawke in the coming election.

That Zombie07 page has a factual error. Zombies aren’t forever as the site claims. Anyone who has prepared for a zombie apocalypse (and let’s be honest here – we all have at least started) would know that zombies will eventually decay. It is an essential part of long term planning and survival. Unless the zombies are in an area where cold may preserve, the average zombie will decay to nothingness after about 5 years.

I can beat youse all on the Hawkie campaigning reminiscences. I was an 11 year old in a Canberra Primary School in 1972 when he filmed a commercial for the ALP in the courtyard outside our classroom window. I can’t remember what he wore unfortunately – only my shock at seeing makeup applied to a man.

Follows hot on the heels of Shanahan’s bullshit about the Australian car industry ‘crisis’, since disowned by the Australian car industry.

News Ltd is beyond disgrace.

Story follows:

“THE con used by Julia Gillard’s former lover to cream off possibly more than $1 million was simple – and backed by standover tactics.

As a union secretary, Bruce Morton Wilson would go to construction sites and tell bosses they “needed” an industrial agreement that he would negotiate.

But there was a price: they had to purchase hundreds of AWU membership tickets in exchange for the industrial peace guaranteed by the “agreement”.

Except that when the employers made out the cheques – sometimes for more than $50,000 at a time – the money for memberships that never existed would go into phoney AWU accounts belonging to Wilson.

When the union discovered the fraud, it went after Wilson through the courts.

In an affidavit, then AWU joint national secretary Ian Cambridge raised specific questions about the role of Ms Gillard’s law firm, Slater&Gordon, in Wilson’s purchase of a Melbourne property.

“I am unable to understand how Slater &Gordon, who were then acting for the Victorian branch of the union, could have permitted the use of funds that where obviously taken from the union in the purchase of private property of this nature, without seeking and obtaining proper authority from the union for such use of its funds,” Mr Cambridge said.

“To my knowledge, none of the $388,564.92 that passed through this account was used for authorised union purposes.”

Mr Cambridge, now a NSW industrial relations commissioner, did not return The Sunday Telegraph’s calls.

Current AWU boss “Big Bill” Ludwig, a powerbroker on the ALP Right, also provided an affidavit to the court outlining corruption involving Ms Gillard’s then lover.

“I am of the view,” Mr Ludwig said, “that there have been a large number of invalid transactions in which officials, employees and former officials and employees of the AWU have intercepted funds that I consider should have been paid to the AWU”

A series of court orders against Wilson and others in 1995 and 1996 nominated missing monies totalling more than $1.25 million.

Court orders were made in 1995 against Wilson for the recovery of almost $42,000, but the AWU’s pursuit of Wilson petered out amid factional disputes.

Early editions of the Sunday Telegraph contained an allegation that Ms Gillard had incorporated funds used by Mr Wilson.

The Sunday Telegraph acknowledges that this allegation is entirely untrue. This error was made by The Sunday Telegraph.

A SURE sign of just how much trouble the Prime Minister is in was the sudden attack of “omospasm” that invaded his public appearances last week.

A malady almost peculiar to John Howard, it takes its name from the Greek word omos, meaning shoulder, and happens when the trapezius and deltoid muscles repeatedly and rhythmically contract, resulting in an uncontrollable twitching of the shoulder.

Causes are stress, fatigue and rising interest rates. Known cures are more sleep, less caffeine and an unambiguous apology for rising interest rates.

More substantively, Jason Kousouskas highlights the bizarre attempts at media manipulation by the Liberal apparat. This example followed Howard’s unspeaking of his intrest rate apology:

Too late to stop the “sorry” saga from dominating the 6pm news bulletins, Howard’s office went into damage control mode and bundled the press pack travelling with the PM onto their chartered jet for Sydney.

With all the experienced hands out of the way, the PM’s office then tipped off the ABC and the Herald Sun newspaper to rush a couple of journalists up to 4 Treasury Place and wait for Howard to appear.

Only one question was allowed at this doorstop “interview” and Howard answered it by accusing the Labor Party of playing word games.

Who was Howard trying to con? The only person playing with semantics was Howard. With himself.

Journalists whose brains have been long steeped in booze or who are Murdoch pensioners (apparently two powerfully overlapping sets) can tolerate such treatment.

When are the rest of the profession going to turn on the Liberal Party?

“I’m a great believer we are in a transition phase from elements of a welfare state to an opportunity society … There’s no reason why this country can’t get better and better.”

This last Howard quote from the article gives the game away. Workchoices horribilis, is one thing, but they are dismantling the welfare system. The Parenting Allowance is being gutted and made exactly the same as Newstart.

“I want an end to latch key kids as we move from the traditional welfare state to an opportunity society that helps families with the daily problems they face” said Tony Blair.

What was Tony talking about there? The latch key kids are likely to result from the two or one carer ‘forced off’ welfare.

Child care for after school and school holidays is virtually non-existent for the ‘latch key age kids’, in Oz, but all benefit recipients are being forced into the workforce, regardless.

Anyway, an interesting link/insight into the plagiarism of political debating there, Mark. Apparently, it wasn’t smooth talking Tony that came up with “working families” palaver that is now up to 138000 listings in google and likely to double in the next two weeks.

Lloyd, thanks for the laff. I normally avoid Miranda Diabolique like the plague, but this was worth it. What a portrait of the Real Queen of Australia and Little Mister Echo, who between them do not sense anything very much, cannot work out what the American “sub” thing is about, and think that things are getting better and better as more folks are reduced to scrabbling between multiple part time jobs, begging on the street and picking over the rubbish dumps.

Miranda’s prophesy that the 2007 election could be the “tightest yet” is likely to be as disconnected from reality as most of her other babblings. With any luck, it will be the least tight election in at least 24 years, in the Coalition’s disfavour.

Probably the Exclusive Brethren. I’ve been told we have a church up here, actually been driven past it and shown the location, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what street it is in. So if they’re behind ot we might see some soon.

Paul, I’ve seen no evidence that the Armidale EB’s are politically active – mostly they seem to try to stay out of trouble. There are plenty of their kids at my childrens school – the only unusual thing that happens is that they get picked up at lunchtime for lunch (I assume to minimise mixing with the other kids or something).

After clicking through to the Miranda Devine article, what was even more interesting was the (very cocky) Greens advert right next to the article. It had pics of Howard – ‘he’s gone’ and then Rudd – ‘but who’s going to keep him honest?’.

I’ve also noticed a lot of Greens ads on TV lately (in Canberra) they seem to be spending quite a bit.

First a complaint. Too much focus on bloody politics at the moment here. The exiles’ disease?

For what it’s worth, I reckon the Labs will scrape in by a thin margin despite (or perhaps because of) the Coals going really unprecendently negative in the last week. That’s it from me until 25 November when then I’ll propose a drinking toast for all those faced by a large frothy green cocktail of schadenfreuden. Decorated with chunks of fruit speared by a little umbrella in the appropriate party colours.

Secondly, a recommendation.

“The protagonist, Colin, is a wealthy young man with a resourceful and stylish man-servant, Nicholas, and a healthy supply of doublezoons in his chest. With dizzying speed, Colin meets and weds Chloe in a grand ceremony. Generously, Colin bequeaths a third of his fortune to his friends Chick and Lisa so they too may marry. Happiness should await both couples but Chloe falls ill upon her honeymoon with a lily in the lung, a painful and rare condition that can only be treated by surrounding her with flowers. The expense is prohibitive and Colin soon exhausts his funds. Meanwhile, Chick’s obsession with the philosopher, Jean-Pulse Heatre, causes him to spend all his money, effort and attention upon collecting Heartrian literature. Lisa hopes to save Chick financially and renew his interest in her by persuading Heartre to stop publishing books. She kills him when he refuses and seeks revenge upon the booksellers. Colin struggles to provide flowers for Chloe to no avail and his grief at her death is so strong his pet mouse commits suicide to escape the gloom.”

Go and google that synopsis. I think what you’ll find is certainly worth a AUD$25 punt at Powells or Amazon.uk

Now I’m off to imbibe the fermented juices pressed from the reproductive organs of plants in the company of empathetic rodents.

Good evening, Your Flightiness. What’s it like being a psephologists-best-practice example of frivolity? The word is out. Nodody messes with The Bludger when he’s “in season”.

“15
William Bowe Says:
November 12th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
If anyone wants my opinion, I could do with a little less frivolity in comments. I have taken to deleting the “yay, me first” comments that some have been leaving when I put a new post up. That kind of thing is appropriate for the Saturday open forums at Larvatus Prodeo, but not here.”

Hmm, those Californication comments are today.
Kim, I thought that ending was INCREDIBLY good.Possibly the best use of a Rolling Stones song in the history of teev. And with only one headlight working too. Wish I’d taped it, I want to see it again….
Best of luck with the move, peoples, and commiserations on the exile.